With energy prices rising, the area of home heating is a real hot topic these days, conservationists are smug, with an "I told you so " attitude, and conservatives finally jumping on the bandwagon but still out of their element, trying to turn themselves into conservationists with out looking foolish or doing too much back pedaling.

None of this is helpful to the average homeowner who just wants to be able to stay warm without hocking Grandma's silver. For the average homeowner looking to update or install a new heating system, there are different things to consider.

1. Insulation Before you even begin to look at installing a new system, take the time to add insulation to your house. A new system is going to cost real money, and you don't want to see savings going out the door, or the windows, or the leaky basement, or around the dryer vents. Call your Utility company and they can perform an energy efficiency test on your home and tell you where the leaks in your home are, for free or little cost. Another option for the energy test is to call your local welfare department, they can direct you to a non profit that provides testing and even help with insulation or winter weatherization for lower income families. Don't rule yourself out, the income guidelines are higher than most people think.

Some of the most common energy thieves are windows, attic areas, the dryer vent, doorways, and plumbing leading outside the house. Basement ceilings and crawl spaces should be insulated to in order to keep floors warmer. For walls, if they are in good condition consider using a paint additive for walls, the new ceramic additives, similar to what they use for the space program, can add a R28 value to your paint coating. I like adding this the the primer instead of paint, because it can change the paint color. If walls are going to be redone also, be sure to get as much solid insulation in them as possible.

2 . Square footage. Do not let an installer talk you into buying more of a unit than you need, an over heated house or a unit that isn't running efficiently will just mean you are opening windows and spending money unnecessarily. Too small of a unit means an over worked unit and more maintenance.

3. Fuel Source With Carbon footprints, rising oil prices and worries over the ozone, using propane natural gas or oil just is not a good option. People looking to install new heating systems should consider electric or wood units. Electric is an especially good choice if one is considering installing solar power down the road. Wood is cheap, renewable, and readily available, and unless you have an electric ignition on it, can even be used during power outages. However, it can be messy and hard to handle for the elderly or someone who lives alone, and unless you are buying a new wood stove, can be very polluting. Geothermal is an excellent choice, pulling heat out of the ground itself to heat your home, but it is very expensive to install and still requires electric or gas to run, but only 25% of what it would take for a standard system. Heat pumps which pull heat directly out of the air to warm or push hot air out to cool are a wonderful choice for warmer climates but can have issues in colder areas.

4. Efficiency Efficiency is the name of the game in the new heating unit. The Energy Star program by the federal government is a good guide to getting the most tested, efficient appliances available. But you still have to do your research, some stores still stock appliances that bear the sticker but may not qualify under the new rules. The extra time taken is worth it in that it helps narrow down options making choices easier for you. For all information on the Energy Star program please go to http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits

Another fast way to increase efficiency is to install a timed thermostat, adjust the controls for those times when no one is home. This can save real money on your power bills.

5. Price Price is the big consideration for most people. But don't despair, the government and private owned utility companies offer rebates, low cost credit options, tax breaks, many manufacturers offer rebate checks for purchase also. The prices vary widely from geothermal, which can run as much as $15,000; to a wood stove, which can be bought for as little as $600 for a really good one. Installation is also a big factor of that cost, but as much as I love saving money by doing things myself, I would never do this with a home heating system. Any time you are messing with fire and electricity you want a trained professional doing it. Saving a few dollars is not worth putting your family at risk.

If you cant afford to do it all at once, then consider starting on the insulation and installing the timer for the furnace, those will make enough difference in your heating and cooling bills (up to 25% more as fuel prices continue to climb) to allow you to save for the purchase of a furnace.

But if you want to go all out, and price is no option, this would be the fantasy set up. Geothermal, set up on a net metered integrated solar system, with a timer thermostat on a house set up for insulation at 150% of federal standards. this would be the greenest system set up without consideration for for systems like passive solar and increasing thermal mass in the home through changing items like flooring, *hard surfaces hold more heat* that, that is another article.

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